HOW THEY DRESS

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 473, 3 April 1909, Page 10

HOW THEY DRESS

So cosmopolitan a spot has Monto Carlo become during the last few years (says an English writer) that to sit outside tho Casino and watch tho people-como out through tho swing doors is a short and easy way to study racial characteristics. Thus you will see how women of all countries—except, perhaps, England—sedulously ape tho Parisian in their-.clothes, their hats, their hair. But for •tho"'men, tho Briton is the model "of elegance, and comic are sometimes tho trifles by which a Frenchman or an American, even though he is tailored in Savilo. Row; .will spoil tho wholo effect of his dress and, betray his nationality. ■ The Frenchman,'for instance, oftenest goes wrong with his cravat, which is too saucy, too flowing, for English taste. The American, on tho other hand, announces tho country of his birth by long eccentric shoes and clothes too tight in cut. Tho German dresses fearfully and wonderfully—sometimes in alpaca suits—and by 110 means slavishly follows his English cousin." Austriaits —particularly cavalry officers—aro extremely ucat and smart, though their custom of wearing gloves 'in tho daytime differentiates them from Englishmen, and no young Beauty's nails are more carefully polished than those of 0110 of Kaiser Franz-Josef's Imperial Uhlans. Then, if you see a young man with a suspicion of side-whisker, bo sure it is a Hungarian noblo; or one with a pointed beard will most likely be a Russian Grand Duke. But, above all, it is tho way the men of tliesa different nationalities walk out of tho swing-door which betrays their special char-act-eristics. The Parisian will step mincingly; tho Slav—on account of his flat feet —has the air of shuffling; and tho German stamps; but the man who puts down his foot with tho mien of a conqueror is an Englishman—though ho may bo the mildestmannered Briton in the place.